Heating apparatus



G. A. GUENTHER HEATING APPARATUS Filed Nov. 14. 1925 June I l, 1929.

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A flfiarnegi Patented June 11, 1929.

GEORGE A. GUENTHER, OF BUFFALO, NEW YORK.

HEATING APPARATUS.

Application filed November 14, 1925. Serial No. 69,146.

This invention relates generally to improvements in heating apparatus for homes and buildings, but more particularly to an apparatus wherein hotwater or steam 1 utilized as the heating medium and llltlilCltll or natural gas as the fuel.

The principal object of the inventlon is to pr wide an apparatus of this character WlllCll is so constructed and organized that the maximum amount of heat units are taken from the gaseous fuel and effectually utilized to transmit their heat to the water-sectlons of the boiler or furnace, and which is designed to eliminate waste and reduce the fuel consumption to a minimum.

Another object is to provide a gas burning furnace or boiler which is simple and inexpensive in construction, and which is efiicient, re liable and economical in operation.

A still further object of the invention is that of readily adapting it for installation in coal burning boilers now in use without materially altering their construction.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a vertical longitudinal section of a water boiler embodying my "improvements. Figure 2 is a fragmentary vertical section thereof on line 2-2, Fig. 1. Figure 3 is a horizontal section on line 3-3, Fig. 1.

Similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views.

The improvement is shown in connection with a well-known type of sectional water boiler, wherein 10 indicates the base enclosing the usual ash pit 11, and 12 the combustion chamber, fire-box or furnace surrounded by the lowermost water-section or jacket 13 and having a return hot water intake pipe 14 which communicates with the se'veral radiators (not shown) included in the heating system. Surmounting this lower water-section are a plurality of inter-communicating watersections 15 which are spaced vertically to provide intercommunicating chambers or compartments 16 through which the hot gases are circulated for transmitting their heat to the exposed surfaces of the water-sections. The uppermost water-section 17 has a hot water outlet pipe 18 which is connected to the radiators in the usual manner.

Supported in the fire-box above the grate bars 19 are a plurality of gas burners 20 of any suitable and well-known construction, each of said burners being applied to a branch pipe 21 connected to a main gas supply pipe discharged through 22 and containing an air mixer 23 and control cock 24. A pilot burner 25 is shown for lighting the burners when desired.

The fire box 12 and the chambers 16 are air tight and for this purpose sand, cement or other suitable material 26 is filled in over the grate bars 19 to prevent air leaking past the latter into the fire box. The air mixers 23 of the burners are located exterior of the boiler, as shown in Fig. 2, and supply the necessary air for the burners through their customary ports 27. An exhaust fan 28, driven by any suitable source of power, is employed for forcibly drawing the products of combustion through the boiler. Its inlet or exhaust side 29 is preferably connected by a sectional pipe 30, 31 with the hood or dome 32 applied to the top of the boiler and into which the products of combustion are discharged upon being drawn or forced through the fire-box and intercommunicating chambers 16. After being taken into the fan through the inlet thereof, the products of combustion pass through the fan-outlet 33 and thence through a pipe 34 leading to the chimney. Connecting the fire-box 12 with the lowermost chamber 16 are one or more pipes or flues 35 and connecting said lowermost chamber and the remaining superposed chambers with one another are similar flues 36, the uppermost chamber communicating with the dome 32 through a substantially central outlet flue 37, as shown in Fig. 1. The several flues are arranged vertically, as shown, in staggered relation and are suitably suspended from the respective water-sections 15 and 17, the joints being made water-tight by furnace cement or other appropriate material. The flues 35 extend well down into the fire-box and terminate short of the bottom thereof, making it necessary for the hot gases to circulate from the top to the bottom of the fire-box before they are discharged therefrom through the lower inlet ends of said fiues into the adjoining chamber 6. The flues 36 in the latter and remaining chambers likewise extend to a point short of their bottom Walls, necessitating a building down or circulation of the hot gases from the top to the bottom of said chambers before they are the lower inlet ends of the respective flues.

By this construction and arrangement of the fines 35, 36 and 37, the hot gases are efi'ectually retarded or bafiied in their passage through the boiler, the heat being thoroughly circulated in the fire box 12 and chambers 16, permitting the heating surfaces of the boiler to absorb a maximum of heat units to make steam or hot water in a minimum period of time.

After entering the dome 32, the gases or products of combustion are drawn through the sectional-pipe 30, 31, into the fan 28 and thence discharged through its outlet 33 into the chimney. As the heat units have not all been removed from the gas at this time, they are preferably utilized to raise the ten'iperature of the water passing through the intake pipe 14 leading from the radiators to the boiler. For this purpose, a box or tank 38 is interposed in the intake pipe 14 adjacent to its point of connection with the boiler, said tank including a water compartment 39 and an adjoining air chamber 40 to the opposite ends of which the pipes 30, 31 are connected, as shown in Fig. 1. The water compartment is provided with depending tongues 41 forming intervening air spaces 42 which bafile the flow of the hot gases sufiiciently to effect-ually preheat the water before passing into the water sections of the boiler. Instead of utilizing the heat units still available in this manner, they may be passed around the return pipe 14 by suitably j acketing it.

In adapting the customary coal burning boiler to my invention, it is only necessary to plug or otherwise seal up the usual fiues connecting the air chambers with one another and substituting for them the fiues or pipes 35. 36 and 37 While the invention is shown in connection with a steam or hot water boiler of the type in which the water sections are arranged vertically one above the other, it is to be understood that the same is equally adapted for use with boilers of the type in which the sections are disposed side by side and extend horizontally over the fire chamber.

I claim as my invention 1. A heating apparatus, comprising a combustion chamber, a burner therefor, a series of water-sections arranged in spaced relation over said combustion chamber, the intervening spaces forming chambers through which the products of combustion are adapted to circulate, artificial means of exhaust for withdrawing the products of combustion from the combustion chamber through the circulating chambers, and fiues suspended from said water-sections and extending downwardly into an adjoining chamber, the fines in the combustion chamber opening at their lower ends adjacent to the bottom thereof and their upper ends opening into the adjacent circulating chamber, the remaining flue's being arranged in staggered relation with their lower inlet ends terminating short of the bottoms of the respective chambers while their upper ends open into adjoining chambers.

2. The combination with a'boiler having a combustion chamber and a series of chambers for the circulation of the products of combustion, of a burner arranged in the combustion chamber, artificial means of exhaust operable to forcibly move the products of combustion from said chambers, and a system of fiues for establishing communication between said combustion chamber and said circulating chambers, said fines having their lower inlet ends disposed adjacent to the bottom of the respective chambers to cause an independent circulation of the products of combustion from the top to the bottom of each chamber.

3. In a gas heating apparatus, the combination of a combustion chamber, a burner therefor, a series of compartments arranged one above the other over said combustion chamber and through which the products of combustion are adapted to circulate, artificial means of exhaust operable to forcibly conduct the products of combustion from the combustion chamber through the series of circulating compartments, and fines arranged in said chamber and said compartments for conducting the products of combustion from the former through the latter, the fines in the combustion chamber opening at their lower ends adjacent to the bottom thereof and their upper ends opening into the adjacent circulating compartment, and the fiues in said compartments opening at their lower ends into the bottoms of their respective compartments and at their upper ends into the next adj oining compartment.

.4. In agas heating apparatus, the combination of a combustion chamber, a burner therefor, a series of water-sections arranged in spaced relation over said combustion chamber, the intervening spaces forming compartments for the circulation of the products of combustion, artificial means of exhaust to forcibly move the products of combustion from the combustion chamber through the circulating compartments, and fines supported in the water-sections for conducting the products of combustion successively from the combustion chamber to the adjacent circulating compartment and from the latter through the remaining ones, the several fines being arranged in staggered relation and those supported in the water-sections above the lowermost one extending to a point short of the bottom of the adjoining compartments and the fines supported in the lowermost watersection extending to a point short of the bottom of the combustion chamber.

GEORGE A. GUENTHER 

